The present invention relates, in general, to a fender for automobiles and, more particularly, to a fender having a structure easily deformed when struck by a pedestrian, thus reducing force of impact applied from the fender to the pedestrian.
As well known to those skilled in the art, the body of an automobile is fabricated by appropriately assembling a plurality of panels and frames to form a desired box-shaped appearance. Such a car body has been so called a mono-caulk body in the field.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the front part of a car body has an engine compartment 10, in which a plurality of power train parts, such as an engine or a transmission, are installed. A wheel housing 12 is provided at each side of the engine compartment 10, while a fender 14 covers each side of the front part of the car body. An openable hood 16 covers the top of the engine compartment 10. Provided at the front end of the engine compartment 10 is a radiator mounting bracket 18. A cowl 20 extends between the two fenders 14 at the rear end of the engine compartment 10.
As shown in FIG. 3, each fender 14 is mounted at its inside edge to the top wall of an apron unit 22 having a box-shaped structure. The conventional fender 14 has a fender panel 14a, which is specifically bent at its inside edge and is mounted to the top wall of the apron unit 22 at the bent edge. In such a case, the inside edge of the fender panel 14a comes into surface contact with the top wall of the apron unit 22. The apron unit 22 comprises an outer apron panel 22a and an inner apron panel 22b, which are assembled together to form a desired box-shaped structure of the apron unit 22.
In a detailed description, the inside edge of the fender panel 14a is primarily bent downward to form a stepped vertical part 14b, and is secondarily bent horizontally to form an inside flange 14c. The stepped vertical part 14b and inside flange 14c of the fender panel 14a are positioned inside the engine compartment 10, and the inside flange 14c is screwed to the top wall of the inner apron panel 22b of the apron unit 22.
In recent years, laws and regulations related to the safety of automobiles require the manufacturers of automobiles to design the car bodies so as to reduce injuries to pedestrians in the case of collision of moving automobiles with pedestrians, in addition to protecting passengers in the case of collision. In order to inform consumers of the safety grades of a variety of automobile models, some countries establish official agencies for testing the safety of automobiles through an NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) including a front impact test, a side impact test, and a pedestrian test, and publicly announcing the test results. Examples of such agencies are FIA (Federation International Automotive) of France, IISH (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) of USA. The pedestrian test of the NCAP is performed by making a moving automobile collide with a dummy, and measures damage to parts of the dummy to determine the pedestrian safety grade of the subject automobile. That is, in the pedestrian test of the NCAP, the agencies measure the expected damage to the head, neck, chest, pelvis and legs of a pedestrian through specified calculations, and express the safety grades of subject automobiles in star grades to classify the safety grades into xe2x80x9cGoodxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cAcceptablexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cMarginalxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cPoorxe2x80x9d. The safety grades of automobiles are announced to the public, thus allowing consumers to compare the automobiles in terms of safety grades when buying automobiles.
Typically, when a moving automobile collides with a pedestrian, the legs of the pedestrian primarily collide against the front part of the car body. Thereafter, the body of the pedestrian inertially slides upward along the hood 16 and the head of the pedestrian collides against a fender 14.
However, a typical conventional fender 14 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 generally does not meet the standard suggested by such an agency for protecting the head of a pedestrian. That is, the stepped vertical part 14b and the inside flange 14c of the fender panel 14a are formed in a linear shape which is not easily deformed when impact is applied to the fender 14. In addition, the space defined between the fender 14 and the apron unit 22 is not sufficient to allow effective deformation of the fender panel 14a. Therefore, the conventional fender 14 is inferior in the function of absorbing impact applied from the head of a pedestrian to the fender 14 in the case of a collision.
The present invention provides a fender for automobiles, which has a structure easily deformed when the head of a pedestrian collides against the fender in the case of collision of a moving automobile with the pedestrian, thus reducing impact applied from the fender to the head of the pedestrian and reducing injury to the pedestrian.
In a preferred embodiment, a fender panel is mounted at an inside flange of the fender on the top wall of an inner apron panel of an apron unit. The fender panel has a raised part provided on the inside flange at a predetermined portion, and a damper vertically mounted to the raised part of the inside flange and inserted into the top wall of the inner apron panel. Preferably, the fender of this invention, a deformable member made of a deformable material is provided on the top wall of the inner apron panel, with the damper being inserted at the lower end thereof into both the deformable member and the inner apron panel.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention a fender panel is supported by a support structure with deformable means interposed therebetween. Preferably the deformable means comprises a deformable support plate defining a hole with a tapered member received in the hole. The tapered member has a larger end and a smaller end. The larger end supports the fender panel and the smaller end is received in the hole. Impact force on the fender is transmitted to the tapered member such that the smaller end is driven into the deformable support plate to dissipate the impact force. The support structure may be an inner apron panel.